Continuous kiln.



Patented Oct, 22, 190i.

r, 'n. T. L EHMANN. CONTINUOUS KILN.

(Application filed Feb. 13, $99.)

I0 Shuts- Sheet I.

(No Model.)

Bye/7 6 1 74 562766 J as r10" WASMINGTON u c Patented Oct. 22, I90|.

F. D. T. LEHMANN.

CONTINUOUS KILN.

(Application filed Feb. 13, 1899.)

I0 Sheets-Shed 2.

( No Model.)

gig/ways x THE ncnms PETERS cu, Puprouwov, WASHmGTdN, n c

No. 685,055. Patented Oct. 22', NM.

F. D. T. LEHMANN.

CONTINUOUS KILN.

(Application filed Feb. 13, 1899.) (No Model.) l0 SheetsSheet 3.

m u N S No. 685,055.v Patented Oct. 22, IQOI.

' F. D. T. LEHMANN.

CONTINUOUS KILN.

(Application filed Feb. 13, 1899.)

RS ca. wow-mum, WA$

Nq. 585,055. Patented-Oct. 22,1901.

1a, 1599. (No Model.) I!) Sheats eeeee 5.

F. D. T LEHMANN CONTINUOUS KILN (Application filed Fei u.

Wv7a5665 Patented Oct. 22, I91".

F. D. T. LEHMANN.

' CONTINUOUS K'ILN.

(Application filed Feb. 18, 1899.) 7

l0 Shoots-Shpt 6;

(No Model.)

Patented 013,22, I90l.

IOSheets-Sheet 7.

. m2 By W A F. D. T. LEHMANN.

CONTINUOUS KILN.

(Application filed Feb. 13', 1899.

(No Moqel.)

'wizeasea No. 685,055. Patented 0ct'. 22, I901. F. D. T. ANN.

commu s KILN.

(A lication filed Feb. 13, 1899 U iT D STATES PATENT Orric i.

i n'IEnRi'oi-i D. T. LEHMANN, OF onioneo, iLmnois.

KCONTINUVOU'SYKILN.

SEECIFICATION forming part of Letters Pateht' 686,036, dated October 22,1901.

Application filed February 13,1899. Serial No. 705A38. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LFRIEDRIOH D. T. LEH- MANN,acitizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inContinuous Kiln-s; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention relates to a novel construction in a continuous kiln forwater-smoking and burning brick, tile, and other earthenware, the objectbeing to provide a device of this character which can be burnedcontinuously in one direction and which can be readily loaded andunloaded at different places without interfering with the burning; andit consists in the features of construction and combinations of partshereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure 1 is atop plan view, partially in section, of a kiln constructed in accordancewith my invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of same on the line 22 of Fig. 4. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 44 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is asectional view on the line 5 5 of Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a sectional view onthe line 6 6 of Fig. 2 on an enlarged scale. Fig. 7 is a sectional viewon the line 7 7 ofFig. 2, also on an enlarged scale. Fig.8 is atransverse vertical section on the line 8 8 of Fig. 1 Fig. 9 is a detailsectional view, on an enlarged scale, on the line 9 9 of Fig. 2.

on the line 10 10 of Fig. 9. Fig. 11 is a detail bottom plan view of acovering-tile. Fig.

12 is a detail sectional view on the line 12 12 of Fig. 9. Fig. 13 is atransversesectional Fig. 10 is a sectional view' by subjecting it' to ablast ofhot air drawn from compartments in which finished product 1 Myinvention consists, chiefiy,in providis cooling and remove from theunfinished ware that part of the moisture contained in it which willevaporate at a comparatively low temperature to gradually prepare suchware for the advancing heat and prevent its being injured thereby. Theother set,which I term draft-channels, are used to direct and controlthe draft. The entire construction is extremely simple.

My kiln consists, primarily, of two permanent elements-namiely, a floorA, which in the instance illustrated is rectangular, and a wall B, whichrises from the middle of the floor A and forms the inner wall of thekiln. The brick, tile, or other material to be burned is piled upon saidfloor A and the outer removable wall 0 is set up along the outer edge ofsaid floor A to a height somewhat greater than said brick or tile andprogressively with the latter. A removable covering D is then laid uponthe material to be burned and ex tends between the middlewall B and saidouter wall 0. In this manner a kiln is formed which I divide into aplurality of compart'; ments by mounting temporary paper partitions Eatintervals, which extend from door to covering and from the inner to theouter walls of said kiln and by means of which, in

combination with the removable Walls and covering, I form perfectlyair-tight compartments.

It must be understood that all the compartments of my kiln are never setup at any one time, but that there are always several compartments ofwhich the outer walls and covering are removed for purposes of loadingand unloading, while the remaining complete compartments are undergoingthe water-smoking, burning, and cooling processes.

In the instance illustrated I have provided a door and middle wall toaccommodate ten kiln-compartments, the number of same being determinedby the number of sets of lines under the floor and likewise in saidmiddle wall.

Each kiln-compartment has a draft-channel at extending underneath thefloor and outwardly from said middle wall, and likewise a water-smokefiue 1) parallel with said draft-channel a, (except in the case of twocorner-compartments,) but at the opposite end of the compartment,saidfiues communieating with said compartments through openings in saidfloor and establishing the draft connection between the lower part ofthe compartments and the main draft-channel and the main water-smokingchannel, respectively. A vertical flue c in said wall 13 connects saiddraft-channel a with the main draft-channel F in the upper part of saidmiddle wall B. A vertical flue (Z connects the water-smoke fine I) withthe main watersmoke flue G in the upper part of said wall 13, whichextends completely around said flue F and is, so to speak, endless. Alllateral draft and water-smoking flues form continuous draft-channelswith the vertical flues and are connected in the masonry with each otherand with the main draft-channel and the main water-smoking flue,respectively. Each of said vertical flues o and d is controlled by adamper e and f, respectively. Said main draft-channel F is connectedwith the chimney H by means of the bridge-flue I, so that by raisinganyone of said dampers e the draft can be directed from any desiredcompartment. The main water-smoke flue G is connected with said maindraft-channel F by means of passages g, corresponding in number with thecompartments of the kiln, and each of said-passages is controlled bydampers g. Thus by opening any one of said passagesg a draft will beproduced in said water smoke fine G, and thereby also in any desired oneof the kiln-compartments, by openingone of the vertical flues 0. Eachkiln-compartment also communicates directly with said main water-smokeflue G through an opening 71. in the side of said wall B, such openingbeing at theopposite end ofthe compartment from said flue b andcontrolled by a damper 7t and establishes the draft, conneetion betweenthe upper part of each compartment and the main water-smoke flue G.Between each of said flues (Z and openings 71,, communicating with thesame kiln-compartment, said main water-smoke flue G is provided with across-damper 1', which serves to interrupt the draft at any desiredpoint and enable it to be led through any one of the kiln-com partmentswhen desired.

As before stated, in the drawings I have illustrated a kiln of tencompartments. These I will refer to as 1, 2, 3, l, 5, 6,7, 8, 9, and 10,and in referring to the fines, dampers, &c., controlling differentcompartments I will term such flues and dampersa I) h h, by which itwill be understood that such lines and dampers are located either in thecompartment 6 or in the wall B adjacent compartment 6.

The operation of the kiln is described in a general way as follows: Mykiln is operated on the principle that a certain quantity of wareasmuch, for instance, as will fill one or more compartments-is made,dried, set in the kiln, water-smoked, prepared for the fire, burned, andremoved ready for shipment set, covered, and partitioned in the samemanner, and the draft is led through the flue a by removing the paperand adjusting the papers to connect the last-named flue with the flue Fand disconnect fine a. In this manner one compartment is set and putinto operation every day or other intervals. soon as the first rows ofgoods in the first compartment are heated sufficiently to ignite thefuel the latter is introduced through fireholes in the covering of thekiln, and the fire which had been temporarily built in a temporaryfurnace in front of said compartment No. 1 is extinguished and suchtemporary furnace removed. The heat is then advanced gradually by meansof advancing the fires and by the aid of the dampers, as thecircumstances demand. When such firing from the top has advanced througha number of. compartments, the different compartments will jbe occupiedpractically as follows: Nos. 2 and 3 are cooling, Nos. 4 and 5 are infull fire, in Nos. 6 and 7 the fire is gradually advancing, No. S isbeing water-smoked, No. 9 is being set up, No. 10 is left empty, andNo.l is being unloaded and thefinished product there:

from shipped.

Described in detail, the above operation is as follows: After thetemporary furnace and the first compartment have been set up, as

above described, and the fire started in such temporary furnace thevertical line a is opened by raising the damper 6, thereby connectingdraft-channel a with the main draft-channel F and causing a draft towardsaid draft-channel a. The material thus becomes gradually heated to adegree sufficient to ignite fuel introduced into said compartment 1, andwhen such temperature is reached fuel is introduced into saidcompartment through the openings in the covering which are arranged inlateral rows at frequent intervals. The material is so set up that eachrow of fire-holes is in vertical alinement with fireshafts formedbetween lateral rows of material. The fuel is preferably crude oilintroduced by steam-injectors,

and each row of burners forms a wall of fire can of course be used.During the intervalin which the material in chamber 1 is being heatedchamber 2 is set up, and before the heat in chamber 1 has become intensethe paper partition separating the two chambers is ripped and destroyed,so that the heat will enter chamber 2. To this end damper e is closedand damper e is opened, thereby forcing the heated gases to traversechamber 2 before passing intothe draft-channel a and thus to thechimney. In this manner the material in chambers 1 and 2, andsubsequently chambers 3 and at, is first water-smoked and subsequentlyby advancing the fire burned. After firing from top of kiln is commencedthe heat is advanced gradually, as ,the circumstances demand, byprogressively abandoning the finished rows of fire-holes and puttinginto operation new ones. The time required to burn various materialsdiffers greatly, ac-

cording to the natureof the raw material and the size and nature of thegoods made there from. No'definite length of time can be set for burningany material; but the operator must be able to judge when his product isfinished and advance his fires accordingly. Thus it direct firing isgoing on incompartments 1 and 2 and compartments 3 and 4 are beinggradually heated. the operator must upon examination be able todetermine when the first row in compartment 1 is finished, and also whenthe first row of compartment 4 3 is hot enough to admit of directfiring. As

the kiln the advantage of the continuousoperation really begins and thewater-smoking flues are utilized. At this time compartment- 1 has beenburned, compartments 2, 3,Iand 4 are burning, compartments 5, 6, and 7are warmin g, compartment 8 has beenset up, corn= partment 9 is beingset up, and compartment 10 is not set up.- Obviously compartment 1requires time to cool before it can be unloaded, and as it is very hot Iutilize the heat therefrom to heat the air which must pass through itbefore it can enter the succeeding compartment and use it also for thepurpose of watersmoking the material in compartment 8,Which is stillseparated from the remaining compartments by the paper partition betweenit and compartment 7. To this end I open the damper 71., thus connectingcompartment 1 with the main water-smoking flue G, and I also openopening h free passage. Cross-dampers z" and 2' remain closed forobvious reasons, the latter to prevent the hot air from by-passingcompartment 8.. The damper f is opened,

thus uncovering the vertical flue d Damper.

h' is opened, as is also the damper g thus connecting fine G with thecompartment 8 and also with the main draft-channel F, there-.

by creating a suction in the section of said flue G between thecross-dampers t and t and also in. the compartment '8. Such suction iscommunicated to the water-smoke channel b the flue 01 and thence to thecompartment 1 through the flue G, thus drawing the hot air from theupper part of compartment 1 under the covering and causing it to entercompartment '8 to Water-smoke the material therein.

the water-smoking in another is completed,

the loading of a third is completed, the fourth is unloaded, while thefifth is cooling. Two compartments are firing and three are beingprepared for the advancing heat. In order to so advance the firing andthe operations, it is obviously necessary to operate the dampers tocontrol the draft and lead it to wherever it is required by thecircumstances.

During the water-smoking operation it is obvious that, by the naturaltendency of the hot air to rise, that part of the material on oradjacent the floor, but not adjacent the flue b, will not be subjectedto the action offsuch hot air to the same extent as theremainingmaterial.

made to pass along the floor from the water- By my construction Iobtain. the great advantage that the draft can readily be IIO, smokeflue b to the draft-channel a by clos- 1 1 ing damper h andopeningdamper e. While thus leading the draft along the floor it will beobvious that some of the hot airwi'll rise, carrying the vapors with it,and such hot air and vapors are subsequentlydrawn ofi through theopening it by opening damper h" and closing damper e. the damper h wouldbe closed for atime and damper e opened, causing a draft from flue b todraft-channel a along the floor. It

is, in fact, my practice to first cause thehot' airto heat the lowerstrata until same are sufliciently warmed and dried to produce a uniformtemperaturethroughout the whole Thus in chamber 8.

compartment during the water-smoking operation.

damper it opened, thereby creating a draft through the upper strata andheating the In case it is desired to utilize the heated air After thelower strata have been I sufficiently heated, damper c is closed andlatter.

passing through the main draft-channel and which otherwise escapesthrough the chimney for the purpose of drying it is absolutely necessarythat the same should be absolutely 5 dry, and therefore should not bemixed with the moist air from a compartment undergoing the water-smokingprocess. To obviate this, a flue Imay be provided above said flue F,which is connected with the flue G by means of passages J, in whichdampers j are interposed to control such connection, as shown in Figs.13 to 18, inclusive. The construction shown in these figures alsoincludes flues K, leading from each of the vertical draft channels orflues c to the main water-smoke flue G, each of said fines K beingcontrolled by a damper 7c. Thus when it is desired to watersmoke thelower stata of the material damper of the compartment undergoing thewater-smoking operation is opened and dam.- per 72/ of same compartmentclosed, thus causing the draft from flue G to be com municated todraft-channel a. When said flue K is utilized, the damper c will ofcourse remain closed, thereby entirely avoiding admission of damp gasesto the main draft-chaun'el F when so desired.

The covering of the kiln consists of a layer of tiles D, which areprovided with ribs on their lower faces resting directly upon the bricksor tiles to be burned in a manner to break the joints. Tiles 12 are laidover said tiles D, so. as to cover the joints between the tiles D wherethe latter are in contact with each other. The interstices between thetiles 12 are either filled with sand or sealed with moist clay. Atregular intervals in said covering I provide openings let, which connectwith fire-shafts formed by the setting of the ware, through which fuelis introduced.

I have not illustrated any means for introducing hydrocarbon fuel, as Ido not wish to complicate this case; nor have I illustrated the mannerin which a temporary wall and furnace is built before the firstcompartment when firing is commenced, for the reason that this will bereadily understood by any person skilled in the art withoutillustration.

I claim as my invention- 1. A continuous kiln comprising a permanentfloor, a permanent wall mounted upon the middle thereof, outer removablewalls and a removable covering adapted to be set up upon said floor andadjacent said middle wall to form a complete kiln, combustiblepartitions dividing said kiln into a plurality of chambers, a horizontalfire-flue in said middle wall, a lateral draft-channel underneath saidfloor in each of said compartments, vertical flues connecting saidlateral draft-channels with said fire-flue, a horizontal watersmoke finein said middle wall surrounding said fire-flue, channels connecting saidwatersmoke flue with the upper portion of each kiln compartment, alateral water smoke channel underneath said floor in each kilncompartment, vertical fines connecting the latter with said first-namedwater-smoke flue,

connection between said horizontal flues in said middle wall and devicesfor drawing off the gases therefrom, and dampers controlling all of saidconnections, substantially as described.

2. A continuous kiln comprising a permanent floor, a permanent wallmounted upon the middle thereof, outer removable walls and a removablecovering adapted to be set up upon said floor and adjacent said middlewall to form a complete kiln, combustible partitions dividing said kilninto a plurality of chambers, a horizontal'fire-fiue in said middleWall, a lateral draft-channel underneath the floor in each of saidcompartments, vertical flues extending downwardly from said horizontalflue and connecting the latter with said lateral draft-channels, ahorizontal watersmoke fine in said middle wall surrounding saidfire-fine, channels connecting said watersmoke fine with the upperportion of each kilncompartment, a lateral water-smoke channelunderneath the floor in each of said compartments, vertical fluesconnecting said watersmoke flue with said lateral Water smoke channels,connection between said fire flue and water-smoke flue in said middlewall, connection between said fire-flue and a chimney, and damperscontrolling all of said connections, substantially as described.

3. A continuous kiln comprising two permanent members, namely a floorand a middle wall mounted thereon, and two removable members, namely, anouter wall and covering, combustible partitions dividing said kiln intocompartments, flues in said floor and middle wall connected with eachcompartment and adapted to control the draft and flues parallel withsaid first-named flues and adapted to be connected therewith forproducing an independent draft through one compartment for water-smokingthe material therein previous to burning, and openings in said coveringthrough which fuel is adapted to be fed to said kiln, substantially asdescribed.

at. A continuous kiln comprising two permanent members, namely a floorand a middle wall mounted thereon, and two removable members, namely, anouter wall and covering, combustible partitions dividing said kiln intocompartments, flues in said floor and middle wall connected with eachcompartment and adapted to control the draft, and fines parallel withsaid first-named fiues and adapted to be connected therewith for thepurpose of establishing an independent draft through one compartment forwater-smoking the material therein previous to burning, and damperscontrolling all of said flues, substantially as described. 7

5. In a continuous kiln, adapted to be divided into compartments andprovided with fire-fines and water-smoke flues, connection between oneend of each compartment and the fire-flue, connection between the upperportion of each compartment and the watersmoke flue, connection betweenthe lower portion of each compartment at its other end and said watersmoke flue, and dampers controlling said connections, whereby a currentof hot air can be passed through the lower portion of each compartmentand through the upper portion thereof to uniformly water-smoke and heatthe material therein, substantially Io as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRIEDRICH D. T. LEHMANN.

. Witnesses:

RUDOLPH WM. LoTz, WM. B. SNoWHooK.

